This invention relates to a mounting arrangement for a vehicle exterior rear view mirror and more particularly to a support bracket for mounting a rear view mirror directly on a body-half hinge plate of the vehicle.
In certain types of sport utility vehicles, such as the Jeep Wrangler for example, the front doors are adapted for ready removal during off-road driving or the like. Current outside mirrors for such Jeep vehicles have their mounting brackets attached to the door-half hinge plate of the front doors. As a result when the front doors are removed the left hand and right hand exterior original equipment mirrors and their associated mounting brackets are also gone.
Various prior art arrangements have been proposed for mounting outside add-on mirrors on vehicle body surfaces such as doors, fenders etc. An example of one such arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,257 issued May 31, 1934 to Schmidt et al. wherein a separate bracket is required to support the mirror shaft clamp or clamps.
With reference to prior art FIG. 1 the left side of a Jeep Wrangler sport utility vehicle is partially depicted at 10. The vehicle left hand side front door 11 is shown mounted on vehicle body 12 by means of upper 14 and lower 16 hinge assemblies with the upper hinge assembly adapted to support an exterior side-view mirror generally indicated at 18. It will be noted that the upper 20 and lower 21 door-half hinge plates are fixedly attached to their associated upper 22 and lower 24 hinge pins. Accordingly, upon the removal of securing fasteners (not shown) on the lower end of the upper pin 22 the door 11 is lifted off the body 12. Thus, as seen in FIG. 1, upper and lower body-half hinge plates 26 and 28 respectively, and their associated apertured knuckles 57 and 29 remain fixed on the body.
Applicant's invention involves providing a one-piece bracket uniquely adapted for ready assembly on the upper body-half hinge plate knuckle 27. The one-piece bracket is designed with upper and lower vertically spaced flanges, formed with upper and lower aligned holes, for attachment to the body-half hinge plate knuckle 27 by means of a standard threaded hex head bolt, spacing washer and nut.